During the latter years of its existence the Latin Kingdom dwindled rapidly in extent and strength. Not only was it being shaken by the advancing assaults of the Moslems, but it was torn by internal and dynastic dissension between rival princes and between these and their vassals. Conrad and his son Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, were Kings of Jerusalem in name only; they were never crowned as such and never took possession of the kingdom. On the execution of Conradin the crown of Jerusalem, together with the meagre remnants of the kingdom, passed to the Kings of Cyprus; and with the capture of Acre, its last remaining town, by the Mameluke Sultan Melek al-Ashraf, son of Sultan Qalaʾun, in 1291[1] the de facto existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end. The Kings and Queens of Cyprus continued to bear the title until the end of the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus in 1489, and after the fall of Acre received the crown of Jerusalem at Famagusta, as being the Cypriote town geographically nearest to the lost kingdom. The title then passed by descent to the House of Savoy, now the Royal House of Italy; and until 1861 the coins of the Kings of Sardinia bore the legend: 'King of Sardinia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem.' The title 'King of Jerusalem' is borne to this day by the Kings of Spain as heirs of the Angevins and through them of Mary of Antioch, as it was until 1918 by the Emperors of Austria.
The Military Orders.—The most characteristic, and perhaps the most permanent features of the Crusades were the Military Orders, of which the most prominent were the Templars and the Hospitallers. Both Orders owed their institution to the charitable purpose of attending the poor and sick Christian pilgrims; both derived their origin from the Holy City of Jerusalem; both subsequently became sovereign states and the most formidable military instruments of the Crusaders. Most of the remarkable Crusading castles which still crown the strategic heights of Palestine and Syria (Krak des Chevaliers, Banias, La Pierre du
- ↑ See Schlumberger, Prise de St. Jean d'Acre en l'an 1291. Paris, 1914.
